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The Don Lemon Show

LEMON DROP | Why Are U.S. Prisoners Dying?

The Don Lemon Show

18Hundred LLC.

Society & Culture, News

3.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Don Lemon sits down with journalist Josh Vaughn and elected official Lamont Jones to expose the horrifying reality inside Dauphin County Prison in Pennsylvania, infamous for having double the national average of inmate deaths. Josh has spent years reporting on the systemic abuse at the prison: from a 17-day solitary confinement blackout to inhumane conditions like freezing cells and medical neglect. Lamont, once incarcerated there himself, is now seeking justice after the suspicious death of his young cousin behind those same bars. Together, they created Death County, PA, a new podcast from Wondery that dives deep into the coverups, corruption, and devastating human cost of America’s broken prison system. In a country where the President is pushing for more incarceration, not less, this conversation couldn’t be more urgent. What does Dauphin County tell us about the future of American justice? And who’s really paying the price? This episode is brought to you by Beam. Visit https://shopbeam.com/LEMON and use code LEMON to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:22.8

entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. At the center of each episode of the new podcast, Death County, PA is a dead body.

0:48.8

In each episode, a young man enters the Dauphin County prison in Pennsylvania, perfectly healthy, perfectly fine, but they

0:55.4

leave in critical condition, and then they die in nearby hospitals. What is going on? Local

1:00.5

authorities said their deaths were the result of medical incidents or that it wasn't clear how they

1:05.3

died. But why then did some bodies have so much bruising? Why were their teeth missing? So many questions.

1:12.8

PIN live reporter Josh Vaughn spent years looking into the dead bodies that kept piling up in the

1:18.7

notorious Dauphin County prison, and he partnered with the City Council official Lamont Jones

1:22.8

to shed light on what he found. Today, I'm thrilled to chat with journalist Josh Vaughn and city council

1:28.6

official Lamont Jones. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining. Appreciate it. Thank you for having us.

1:33.6

Yes, sir. Josh, how did you come up on this story from the Dauphin County Prison?

1:38.5

So I joined Penn Live in November of 2021, and it became pretty clear, pretty early on, that there were

1:48.3

issues at the jail. Just hearing about people dying, it wasn't long after I joined that

1:55.6

Jamal Krummel, who's at the center of our third episode of the podcast, died in the middle of the winter

2:03.6

from what turns out to be hypothermia.

2:07.2

So it became pretty apparent pretty quickly that there were things going on at Dolphin County

2:12.9

that went beyond just one or two bad actors,

2:17.8

but involve systemic and longstanding issues

2:22.8

of potential corruption, of just lack of care

2:28.6

for the people in their custody, neglect, abuse,

2:33.0

all that, that sort of stuff.

2:35.4

And I wanted to know more.

...

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